Technical Specification

Released by Columbia Pictures, Inc.

Comments

From Chris Beck : The orphans may
make life into hell for Mickey and friends, but one has to wonder what possessed
Mickey to give them hammers, axes, saws, and miniature cannons for Christmas
in the first place!

From Joe Manning : Watching this
cartoon really made me feel grateful that I only have two cats. They can
really be a handful, but there must've been about 20-25 kittens in that
basket. Imagine how many litter boxes Mickey and Minnie would have to clean.
Yikes!

From Jerry Edwards : One of the
few Disney cartoons that I truly detest. I find nothing humorous in the
delinquent kittens destroying the house and ruining Mickey, Minnie, and
Pluto's Christmas. BAH!! HUMBUG!!

From jasonC : Ahhh!!! Such a great
cartoon! I love to see these absolutely adorable kiddies acting like psychopaths.
And poor, helpful, well-intentioned Mickey and Minnie are completely defeated
by their own kindness. It's a great parable for parents. And a fun thing
for young hellions to watch. This seems to be one from a little sub-genre
that could be called "Mickey-is-overwhelmed-by-an-army-of-babies". I mean,
the irony is brilliant: pitting the cute against the cute. And I really
love how at the end there is nothing for Mickey to do but laugh, which is
a true lesson (for those of you who look for morals in you stories).

From Ryan : I have always loved
this classic short. I can see why it won an academy award. Mickey and Minnie
are the new owners of a huge litter of kittens (anyone want to guess how
many there are?). As Mr. Joe Manning pointed out above, Mickey and Minnie
will have a helluva lot of litter boxes to clean out. Why they'll probably
spend more money on food for the kittens than they do on themselves. I watched
a segment of the news last night, and there was a trailer house that had
been evacuated because there was so much animal waste scattered around.
Let's hope that doesn't happen to Mickey and Minnie.

From Lee Suggs : I think this is
the first Mickey short set during Christmas. It interesting that the
first such short would deal with Mickey and Minnie getting abused by
cats! Of course, small animals abusing Mickey and his gang is a common
theme in many classic shorts. (Orphan's Benefit,
for example, twice!) I wouldn't say this is a short with deep meaning, but
it is amusing. It's also positive that Mickey and Minnie are so good natured.
The Christmas Tree in this short is fun too! I'm always impressed by how
festive the animators made it look with just black and white shading.

From Chris Purdue : This short is
not one of my very favorites, but it is one of Disney's first Christmas
themed shorts in a sound cartoon. I agree with Lee Suggs. I like how festive
the black and white Christmas trees look. Although I am legally blind, I
can see the detail if I look closely at the screen. Although I don't love
the early black and white Mickey cartoons that much, I would give this one
a seven on a scale of one to ten. And I do like the scene where Mickey dresses
as Santa.

From Gijs Grob : It's Christmas
and a poor lady drops by Mickey and Minnie's house to leave a box at
their doorstep. This box contains an endless quantity of little kittens
who are taking over the house within seconds. Soon, the house is near
complete destruction. This is partly Mickey's own fault, because dressed
up as Santa he gives the little brats toys like hammers, saws, drills,
axes, guns and canons. This is a real gag cartoon and the first with
many brats causing havoc. No musical routine is involved, but as soon as
the box with kittens is opened, the gags roll in like they never did
before. The kittens even manage to give the ever cheerful Mickey and
Minnie a dismayed look, albeit only at the end of the cartoon. The
little kittens would cause havoc again in
Mickey's
Revue(1932) before being replaced by the little mice in
Mickey's
Nightmare later that year.

From Bill I. : I liked this short
for many reasons. One, I believe it's the first "Christmas" short. It's
strange but Walt did not make many holiday cartoons. Anyway, this short
had little kittens instead of the baby mice in later shorts. Second, it
was loaded with action and gags from the start. And third, it is important
because it shows that Mickey and Minnie, even in the depths of the depression,
still share all they have with strangers. I don't understand why when Mickey
dresses as Santa he gives the kittens all those "tools" of destruction,
but it was those tools that gave rise to all the great gags. I really did
not like the ending when the orphans destroyed that beautiful Christmas
tree. Other than that, it was enjoyable.

From Baruch Weiss : This short's
ok, but it's not one of my favorites. For one thing, I'm not a fan of Black
& White cartoons and for another thing all those kittens did was turn Mickey
and Minnie's quiet home into a mad house!

From Virginia (Igalo) Morgan : As
a child, our family followed all of my uncle's cartoons - Joe D'Igalo. Mickey's
orphans was my favorite. Joe added the D' to his name after completing art
school in Chicago. After attending art school, where he met Walt Disney,
he went on to work with Disney.

Mickey's orphans was one in which he spoke about years later. We watched
all of his cartoons and were thrilled to see his work in collaboration with
other animators. He spoke of his wonderful ventures with Disney and Warner
Brothers. His later career was in commercial art with Wilding pictures in
Chicago, where he produced work for NASA and other government programs.

After retirement, my uncle retired in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he
was born. He opened a gallery displaying some of the best watercolor work
of his life! As a child, he would send me unfinished watercolor paintings,
for me to complete and return to him for critique! To watch him quickly
doodle a cartoon was the highlight of his visits!

Thank you for the history of the animators of early Disney cartoons!

From Matthew Cooper : First, I'd like to point out that this short is very similar to (and nearly a remake of)
Mickey's Good Deed because it also has Mickey playing Santa for a group of orphan kittens although, they are not given to him, he sees that they are poor and tries to give them a Christmas. Now, here is my opinion on this short. Usually, I don't care much for the old black and white cartoons but, this is one of my
favorites. The antics these kittens cause for Mickey, Minnie and Pluto are plentiful and they come fast and funny. The concluding gag where Mickey and Minnie show the kids their Christmas tree and they rush and wreck it makes one say "Oh, poor Mick! ey and Minnie". NOTE: Why did they cut out the scene where the orphan's are firing popguns at the glasses and china? They were not shooting Mickey, Minnie, Pluto or each other. It was just household objects. If there was any scene that should have been cut, It should've be the one where the kittens stick hot embers down Mickey's shorts and he screams!"